Temporarily uncertain of position...
ORAC, your tale of the F-4s and the Israeli F-15s reminds me of something similar that happened in 83/84 ish. I should point out before I go any further that, with age, I remember things perfectly clearly, but quite often remember them entirely incorrectly, so please forgive me if I've got the wrong squadron or the wrong dates.
During Op Pulsator (protecting UN forces in Beirut) a four ship from Tremblers (I think it was Tremblers, anyway) set off towards Beirut for a practice sweep in support of the Bucc det. Now, once out of TACAN range and without INAS (the FG1, had a hamster-driven air position indicator, which on a good day would tell you which hemisphere you were in with a 50% chance of being right) our heroes relied on using the radar to pick up the distinctive peninsula that Beirut sits on.
All went well until the final leg. Bang on time, the coast came up on the radar, but the lead nav couldn't work out how they'd got so far north of track because the peninsula was thirty-odd degrees right of where it should've been. Undaunted, they turned right to put it on the nose. Trouble was, it wasn't the right peninsula - it was the one with Haifa on the end of it. I don't remember the exact details of how they were alerted to their mistake, but they ended up beating a hasty retreat stage left with a formation of IDF F-15s not far behind them.
A year or so later during an APC, 56 Sqn was involved with what became known unofficially as Operation Secret Squirrel - I've no idea if the details are in the public domain, so will say no more - but once again, it ended up with our F-4s bravely running away from the Israelis.
Last edited by Ali Qadoo; 16th Aug 2012 at 17:09.
Reason: typos